Campaign for Winners.

How Millennials Can Impact The 2016 Election. But Will They Vote?

The stage is set. With both the Republicans and the Democrats finalizing their presidential and vice-presidential candidates, the race for towing in the most votes has just begun. As America counts down to the final showdown of the Presidential Elections 2016 in November let’s take a look at how the millennials are expected to impact the selection of who replaces President Obama at the White House.

Millennials are not, what we’d call the conventional brand loyalists. This fact is evident in their consumption patterns and will soon emerge clearly in their political views as well. This group of demographics is far more result-oriented than its predecessors. They wouldn’t just stick to something because of its name. When the millennials look at outcomes, they are interested to know what works for them and this has nothing to do with the party – be it the Republicans or the Democrats. This fact alone holds the potential to modify the landscape of traditional political campaigning as we know it.

Millennials lately have become increasingly tech savvy with the ability to alter the course of a conversation. Their beliefs in a particular stance are based upon population-share numbers together with the undeniable influence of digital platforms. It's an interesting phenomenon to consider if you ask us.

Online trends on culture, politics, and social norms can and will impact the opinions of those who will actually march to their local polling booths in November. And when a millennial who is not voting or is ineligible to vote, influences the views of a non-millennial to vote in a different way owing to cultural influence on social media – there’s hardly any way that can be measured!

This is happening right now. This is how millennials are influencing the outcome of the Presidential Elections 2016. A mere GIF, Tweet, video or post can have a massive reach – and the impact can blow away your minds.

The biggest challenge facing both the Democrats and the Republicans this time around is to mobilize the youth into coming out to vote. With both attempting the feat with their respective Get Out the Vote campaigns, November 8 will be a face-off of strategies. For the Democrats however, this may be a good time to change gears from their previous strategies which promised a much higher young voters’ turnout than the actual numbers that showed up.

As far as the question “Will the millennials come out to vote?” is concerned, the previous statistics portray grim prospects. The 2008 Presidential Elections saw the highest turnout where 50% of the eligible millennial voters casted their vote. The 2012 elections saw an even bleaker turnout of just 46%. However, that does not mean the 2016 elections will follow suit. If the contending candidates can successfully Get Out the Vote, the results just might swing in their direction.

For election 2016, the millennials almost form one third of the United States electorate. Trump or Clinton? We’ll have to wait and see who wins the race – more importantly who wins over the millennials, because it’s only a matter of time that the millennials will become the best represented generation at the polls.